Posted on 08/24/2005 12:35:00 PM PDT by SmithL
HAYWARD, Calif. - Nearly three years ago, Gwen Araujo was beaten and strangled after her companions discovered the fetching 17-year-old was biologically male.
Closing arguments in the prosecution's second attempt to win murder convictions in the case were set for Wednesday afternoon.
Three 25-year-olds, Michael Magidson, Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, face first-degree murder charges. A fourth man, Jaron Nabors, 22, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for testifying against his friends.
The case has been closely watched by the transgender community, who were disappointed last year when the first jury deadlocked. Magidson's attorney had argued the case was no more than manslaughter, a crime committed in a passion sparked by sexual deception, a defense that activists and Araujo's family called blaming the victim.
Araujo was born a boy named Edward but grew up to believe her true identity was as a woman. The defendants, who knew Araujo as Lida, met her in late summer 2002 and soon became friends. Flirty and fun, the teenager started hanging out at Merel's house in the San Francisco suburb of Newark where they drank, smoked marijuana and played dominoes.
Magidson and Merel had sexual encounters with Araujo and, according to Merel, so did Nabors, although Nabors denies that.
Suspicions about Araujo's gender began to grow after Magidson and Merel compared notes, leading to a confrontation in the early morning hours of Oct. 4, 2002.
The debate was settled when Araujo's underwear was roughly pulled aside.
After that, chaos ensued.
Nabors said Araujo was choked, kicked and punched. He said he saw Merel smash Araujo in the head with a can and also hit her with a frying pan. Eventually, Araujo was knocked unconscious, tied up and carried out to the garage where Nabors said he saw Magidson start to pull an end of rope toward Araujo's neck.
Cazares, who, like Nabors, testified at both trials, denied taking part in the attack. He said he was outside when Araujo was killed but felt obliged to help his friends bury the body.
Merel, who said he vomited and wept when he learned Araujo was biologically male, acknowledged slapping Araujo and hitting her once with a pan. But he said he only tried to scare her and never intended for her to be killed.
At the first trial, the defendants worked together, focusing on trying to undermine Nabors' credibility. But unity faltered in the second trial, with Merel and Magidson testifying for the first time - and telling different stories.
Magidson said he didn't remember much of what happened that night, but he's sure he did not kill the teenager. He identified Nabors as the strangler.
After he was arrested, Magidson confessed to police he strangled Araujo, but he testified that he only did
"The case has been closely watched by the transgender community"
I don't even want to imagine what a 'transgender community' looks like.
animals. A smackdown maybe but to beat someone to death?
although I can't seem to get past the writer's insistance on calling a he a she.
All the defense has to do is ask the jury: "How would YOU react if you discovered that your "girlfriend" was a man or your "boyfriend" was a woman?
Any non-faggot would immediately see that this is manslaughter (itslaughter?), not murder.
Looks justifiable to me. I can only imagine the horror that the defendant went through.
If you read the article, the victim was violently attacked and left to die in a remote area. Murder is murder, no matter the victim.
This tragic human was not a "she", and the press is as mixed up as this mixed up person was. We need to learn to tell it like it is, and not what we would like for it to be.
If not biological what other standard are you supposed to use? Was he quantum mechanically female?
And yet the ap uses "her" to describe their biological "male".
I would be deeply disturbed and I would cut off all contact with the person.
I would not resort to murder.
This was not a "crime of passion." It was a group of guys who got mad that the "chick" they were all fooling around with wasn't all they thought she was.
Basically, they killed this person because their feelings were hurt.
"Justifiable" means things like self-defense.
It doesn't cover hurt feelings.
"Looks justifiable to me. I can only imagine the horror that the defendant went through."
The real horror is that you think murder is justifiable, you're sick
I see what the transvestite did as being very close to rape. I don't see where the defendant agreed to have sex with a man. It is so intuitively repulsive that his reaction is very understandable.
Maybe I just don't have as high a tolerance for this sort of perversion of human nature as you guys.
This person lied to the guys during their sexual encounters. That is certainly dishonesty, but it is not rape. It is no different than, say, a married man lying and telling some woman he meets at a bar that he is single.
I don't see where the defendant agreed to have sex with a man. It is so intuitively repulsive that his reaction is very understandable.
Not really relevant, from a legal point of view. Except in very rare cases, the personal qualities of a murder victim are not a defense. These murderes are trying to come up with some sort of BS excuse, such as the "Twinkie defense."
Maybe I just don't have as high a tolerance for this sort of perversion of human nature as you guys.
Nobody is asking you to approve of what the victim here did or was. The question for you is, do you let murderers off the hook because of hurt feelings?
If a jury could only decide between first degree murder and manslaughter, manslaughter would be my choice.
So, I guess the old "he needed killing" defense is out, eh?
What exactly do you call a person *born* with body parts from both sexes?
Did God create this person? Aside from freaking you out a little bit, how can this person be abhorrent? It's Gods child after all.
How come certain men, who for all outwardly appearances are men, facial hair, deep voice, can have female sex organs.
How come certain females, who again for all appearances look like women, sound like women, shaped like women, but have mens sex organs?
Since it's entirely possible for both sexes to have the other sexes physical sex organs, is it not also possible that the internal organs (the brain mainly) could be more feminine even in a male body and vice versa? This certainly could explain homosexuality, but then, I'd hate to ruin anyones black and white viewpoints.
Seems like it. Their egos were probably bruised because they really enjoyed whatever sexual things this trannie did for them.
That is a valid defense only in Texas.
I think you've nailed it (so to speak).
The guys got their monica from the trannie, and when they found out, they had to kill him to prove to themselves and the others that they weren't also gay.
It is kind of humorous, though, to read folks defending their actions. It's not something you read on FR every day, defending a group of sodomites because the individual they were sodomizing was of the wrong gender. I'm guessing when they were tickling trannie's tonsils, they were having no issue with the situation at all.
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